Relic: future Company of Heroes sequels could go "anywhere"

World War II's massive fronts and costly campaigns are the gunpowder-flavored butter to Company of Heroes' bread, but future entries in the RTS franchise beyond Company of Heroes 2's snowdrifts and drifting tanks might not necessarily keep the same setting. Speaking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun , Relic Game Director Quinn Duffy said the series could go "anywhere" and deal with other military conflicts. It's called Company of Heroes, after all, not Company of Russian, American, or German 1940s Heroes.

"We could look at setting this game anywhere," Duffy said. “We know what we want to deliver in a Company of Heroes game. We know what we want it to feel like. So the setting becomes another piece of military history to tell, or another set of stories. But the game should feel like a Company of Heroes product.”

Company of Heroes 2's chilly Eastern Front likes reminding us how flamethrowers were apparently standard-issue weapons for every soldier, but it's also entering a closed beta "shortly after the New Year" before releasing early 2013. Anything goes after that—including a potential reentry into free-to-play territory after the short-lived Company of Heroes Online .

"It's an interesting new market and there's a lot of potential for strategy-type games in [F2P]," Duffy explained. "It's definitely part of THQ's vision going forward and ours in the studio as well. You know, making sure we've got good coverage going into these new models.”